Last week, leaders from throughout the sweetness and wellness industries had been gathered for an intimate dinner in New York. Held at Brass & The Tusk Bar, inside town’s Evelyn Hotel, the night inspired significant dialog and connection, bringing friends collectively to debate the business’s advanced development puzzle.
Hosted by Amazon’s well being and magnificence common supervisor at Amazon US Stores, Melis del Rey, The Business of Fashion’s director of content material technique, Alice Gividen, and government editor of The Business of Beauty, Priya Rao, the night started with a welcome toast from del Rey, earlier than Gividen and Rao shared key insights from BoF’s The State of Fashion: Beauty report with attendees, offering unique context and suggestions across the report’s main themes.
Executives from luxurious magnificence manufacturers together with Chanel, YSL Beauty, Givenchy and Prada Beauty joined leaders from newer disruptive independents together with Gisou, Element Eight and Dr. Few. Joining them had been leaders from the sector’s main conglomerates, from L’Oréal Group and Amorepacific via to Puig and Estée Lauder Companies.
In 2025, magnificence’s period of easy development is giving solution to a extra advanced panorama. Growth remains to be anticipated — BoF expects the worldwide magnificence business to develop 5 % yearly via 2030 — however a once-clear blueprint for fulfillment is now clouded because of shopper fragmentation, class strain and a marked evolution within the buyer purchasing journey.
“Today, earning trust with customers has many different facets. Beauty is an emotional category, by default, and also a category of discovery — the way in which you emotionally connect with customers is very important,” Amazon’s del Rey informed BoF. “But convenience is also imperative. One facet cannot be prioritised over the other — brands need to consider each of these components equally.”
That sense of emotional connection rang true amongst dinner company. “The industry has always been about delighting people — but the way that they discover brands, looks and techniques has changed so much,” mentioned Ali Kole, common supervisor, North America, at Charlotte Tilbury.
“Meeting them where they are in the ways that they learn best and want to engage is a core focus for us.”
Last week, Charlotte Tilbury launched on Amazon’s Premium Beauty US retailer, including to the platform’s increasing status magnificence choice. The model’s storefront consists of shoppable make-up tutorials and a digital shade-finder instrument to help in assembly buyer wants.
Jessica Fisher, CEO of skincare model Dr. Few, added that manufacturers “really have to know their ‘why’ in a more complex growth [market]. It’s why we are clinically tested, with peer-reviewed published studies for our products. Ultimately, the customer is looking for authenticity and credibility in this space,” she informed BoF. “If you have the right point of difference — or the right story — you’re in a better position.”
For del Rey, investing in personalisation is essential to interesting to prospects who search belief, comfort, and help when discovering merchandise. According to The State of Fashion: Beauty report, manufacturers may doubtlessly improve conversion charges by 40 % in the event that they started processing knowledge to section audiences and create shopper personas.
“Personalisation is so critical, but it doesn’t simply mean, ‘You bought this, so now you should only see this brand,’ or ‘You looked at this brand, so we’ll show you more of the same.’ It needs to go deeper,” she added. “Too often, personalisation is surface-level, based on broad consumer insights. For us, it’s about building trust, so customers feel understood. Amazon customers interact with beauty in distinct ways and demonstrate different habits depending on what products they are shopping, so we need to understand more than just their generic insights. We’re experimenting with technology to build unique beauty profiles for our customers so we can better serve their needs and drive customer satisfaction and engagement.”
For Kia Lowe, common supervisor at Gisou, loyalty is constructed via neighborhood suggestions loops — not simply to have interaction prospects, however to deliver them into the product growth course of.
“We’re always considering fun ways to test, tease and suggest new products. Sometimes, we ask ‘what should we launch next?’ on social channels, just to see how customers respond,” Lowe informed BoF. “We read through every single comment — we’re always trying to surprise and delight, and do things that feel irresistible for customers.”
With prospects now engaged in open dialogue with magnificence manufacturers, retailers are strategically evolving their choices to help. At Amazon, strategic funding in magnificence has scaled lately, however the retailer has been within the magnificence enterprise for greater than 20 years, launching its first magnificence iteration in 2004, targeted on mass magnificence merchandise.
In 2013, it began its premium magnificence enterprise however acceleration on this house has come within the years post-pandemic via vital innovation to enhance the purchasing journey, and strategic work to construct each buyer belief and business credibility. According to analysis from funding financial institution TD Cowen, by 2030, Amazon’s US market share in magnificence is anticipated to succeed in 15 %, up from 10 % in 2024
“Investments include new brand store technology, created directly from brand partner feedback and reworked product detail pages to include more visual, immersive features like augmented and virtual reality capabilities” shared del Rey. “We’ve also doubled down on developing customer engagement programmes tailored specifically for beauty, including dedicated beauty programmes for Amazon Live and the Amazon Influencer Programme to support customer and brand engagement,” she added.
That notion of engagement is a well timed funding. The effectiveness of efficiency advertising and marketing has dwindled, making it troublesome for model communications to chop via — 80 % of Gen-Z globally report feeling overwhelmed by their publicity to manufacturers, based on BoF and McKinsey & Co.’s The State of Fashion 2025 report.
Brands want to point out up within the channels and areas that matter most to their prospects — from by-appointment cultural occasions akin to dwell live shows, leisure and sports activities to the myriad of social channels the place prospects scroll, store and socialise.
“I think it is very fragmented and non-linear, and it’s basically an omni-journey,” mentioned Emily Coppock, US common supervisor of Sulwahsoo. “It takes work to determine where to double down, where to prioritise, where to focus to find that customer and to meet the customer where they are.”
At Amazon, leisure programmes are one key channel to be utilised by manufacturers for cut-through. “To me, this is where we’re creating emotional connections in a more implicit, cultural way,” mentioned del Rey.
“We have a vast content library through Amazon MGM Studios, and we’re actively exploring brand collaborations early in the development cycle to integrate products directly into storylines. Using entertainment as a vehicle for brand engagement is a strategy we’re leaning into.”
Thinking like the patron is a crucial element of constructing a powerful leisure technique. “I consume a lot of social media that I personally wouldn’t typically consume […] to really walk in the shoes of my consumer,” added Charlotte Tilbury’s Kole.
For del Rey, one ongoing precedence is replicating in-store product testing and try-on — notably color cosmetics — on-line. Across the business, digital try-on instruments have confirmed helpful, although precisely translating how merchandise seem throughout numerous pores and skin tones and lighting circumstances has traditionally confirmed difficult.
Now confirmed profitable in different shopper classes, akin to equipment and eyeglasses, this course of for magnificence merchandise is likely to be enhanced with generative AI — even demonstrating the potential advantages a product may should their look over time. Indeed, McKinsey analysis predicts that gen AI may add $9 billion to $10 billion to the worldwide financial system primarily based on its affect on the sweetness business alone.
“Amazon is doing a lot when it comes to applying AI to simplify the shopping experience. But beauty is about two things: inspiration and discovery, and we’ve been considering [new] applications that will support shopping for colour cosmetics on Amazon, in addition to AI-powered shopping experiences to combine inspiration, curation and convenience. There’s plenty to be excited by.”
This is a sponsored function paid for by Amazon Beauty as a part of a BoF partnership.